The Next New Thing

New Media comes in all shapes and sizes and one of form of it that does not exist right now is HUD for everyday living. Just like in a video game you have a heads up display that displays all crucial information like your health status or energy status you can have one in real life also. This can be done through a pair of glasses that have a display built into the lens. These glasses would allow you to see information that the other lens wearers display. Also these lenses can help display directions like a GPS would. These glasses can be used for crucial information such as health conditions that people might have. Users can program their lenses to display crucial information such as allergies, or health conditions. There are endless possibilities for what you can use these lenses for. I know it won't be long when these glasses become part of our reality.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is exchanging or distributing files from one computer to another. File sharing can be done through P2P file sharing. P2P stands for peer-to-peer, and is file sharing through the use of a P2P network. You may heard of P2P networks from the past like napster. A more recent and popular P2P network is on the rise now and its called BitTorrent. According to "The BitTorrent Effect" by Clive Thompson, over 20 million people have downloaded the BitTorrent application. Thompson also reports that BitTorrents P2P network is responsible for one-third of the traffic on the internet. P2P is becoming more and more prominent on the internet because it allows more people to share files faster. What is causing controversy is the legality of it. There has been major lawsuit from media companies towards people who are downloading and sharing their content.

Privacy

Privacy has become a huge issue with the emergence of new media. All new media incorporates the sharing and viewing of information. This information can sometimes lead to debates from privacy and ownership. One problem that I've witnessed so far is the debate of ownership with regards to information stored on cloud networks.

Companies like amazon sell eBooks on their cloud network. Subscribers pay for subscriptions to these eBooks online and are able access them whenever they want. However these subscribers don't own any physical part of the book. These eBooks are still property of amazon. Amazon is entitled to do anything they choose with these books. Some subscribers have had their entire library deleted and there isn't anything they can do about it. According to the ownership rights Amazon has not violated any of their subscribers rights.

Another reason privacy has become an issue is because since new media is meant to be shared there really isn't a filter for who can and cannot view your content. By posting up information on the internet you are technically welcoming the entire world to view it. Even your "private" emails aren't so private. As a matter of fact your emails belong to the server that hosts them and they reserve the rights to these emails.

With the spread of new media and growth of the internet there will be no such thing as privacy. It seems that once something has entered the public domain, it will stay public. As a precaution if it is something you consider private then i suggest that you don't put it on anything except an hard drive you have at home. And even if that isn't enough hide that hard drive under your bed!

Advice to Baruch College

Some ways that I would use New Media to improve Baruch would be to make a YouTube account for videos of tutorials for things in school. One tutorial that i would make would be one for the microwaves in the student cafeteria. Ever since my freshman year I've never learned how to use the microwaves. It would be nice to have someone explain it on video and post it up and have students be able to look it up and watch it.

Another way I will incorporate new media would to be create an interactive map of the school and the area around it. It would include all the places to eat, book stores, nearby activities and everything that could cater to the students. This map would also have a feedback feature where students can add their responses after visiting places. Students can leave their reviews and rate the venue for other students. This would help encourage a sense of community since Baruch has so many students. This would give them something to talk about and something to relate to each other with.

There are way more different forms of new media that can be applied to Baruch to make it better for the students. These are just some of my ideas.